3.9.14

I'm coordinating the Summer School IDEAL Tourism - Information and communication technologies for promotion and development of sustainable tourism around cultural and natural destinations. The case of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites (see a photostory of the first week here)

20.7.14

eLearn Center Research Paper Series8 (2014) special issue on The role of e-learning applications within the tourism sectorcoordinated by Oriol Miralbell, Lorenzo Cantoni, Nadzeya Kalbaskafully available online for download

21.6.14

Barriers and Facilitators in the Maturity Process for Web Promotion of Italian Tourist Destinations (available in English and in Italian) by Cristina Fabi, Elena Marchiori, Lorenzo CantoniAlmaTourism. Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development, 5/1 (2014)

18.6.14

The slides of the presentation The Role of Food and Gastronomy in Online Travel Reviews about Agritourism Experiences. The case of Italy by Elena Marchiori, Fabienne Boegli, Asta Adukaite, and Lorenzo
Cantoni.Done at the 3rd International Conference UNITWIN
- UNESCO Chair “Culture, Tourism, Development”: Tourism and Gastronomy Heritage: Foodscapes, Gastroregions and Gastronomy Tourism, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. June 18th 2014

17.5.14

Just had the great honor to award the title of doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI lugano, Switzerland) to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikimedia foundation.
Hereafter the reason as it appears on the diploma: “Per il suo ruolo nel promuovere la condivisione
online della conoscenza e nell’offrire una piattaforma enciclopedica
collaborativa aperta alle diverse lingue e culture” (“For his role in
promoting online knowledge sharing, and in providing a collaborative
encyclopedic platform open to different languages and cultures”).
At the following link it can befound my laudatio>>>

6.3.14

Dear colleagues and friends, I am very happy and excited to write these lines, honored to start serving our IFITT community as president.
First, I want to thank the past president, Dimitrios Buhalis, for his
fundamental role in bringing IFITT where it is now, as well as all other
previous presidents: Hannes Werthner, Josef Margreiter, and Andrew
Frew. I would also like to thank all members of the previous board, for
their great service. I am pleased to introduce the members of
the new board: Iis Tussyadiah, vice-president, Mathias Fuchs, Wolfram
Hoepken, Alessandro Inversini, Barbara Neuhofer, Tinkara Pavlovcic,
Dimitris Serifis, and Phil Xiang. With their remarkable competence and
commitment, I am sure we will do a great journey together.
In Lugano, Dr. Nadzeya Kalbaska from webatelier.net will lead a
dedicated team: Hazique Gul Memon, managing online communication
activities, and Alessandra Filippi, devoted to membership management.
In Dublin, while enjoying ENTER2014, I had the chance to briefly
present my approach and main goals: you can see the full presentation here. Let us start with our identity. Like in the Irish
Claddagh, we have two hands keeping a crowned heart: on one hand, we
need to be relevant for the industry and responsible for society, while
on the other hand we have to ensure scientific soundness and rigor. Both
activities being done with an un-divided heart: Share knowledge,
experience, and a true passion for ICT in travel and tourism! Three major areas of activity should be addressed:Service to our members: listening to their needs, keeping them in
contact, making sure that they know each other and enjoy relevant and
fruitful conversations, providing relevant materials to learn and
upgrade. All in all, we need to ensure that we constantly provide value
for money/subscription. IFITT growth: should happen
naturally, supporting chapters and sense of ownership, making sure that
IFITT flag is present at relevant events. Communication will play a
major role here. After having tested several channels, we are going to
focus on a few selected ones: this newsletter, our website, Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn. Walk the talk: we constantly need to
stay focused on our role, as pioneers in the field of eTourism, we will
“walk the talk” in the way we communicate and cover bleeding edge
topics. As you can see, there will be a clear continuity with
the steps done by IFITT so far: we will be happy if we are able to
continue the journey even further, with passion and focus.*** About my role and myself. I am professor at Università della Svizzera
italiana (USI Lugano, Switzerland), and dean of the Faculty of
Communication Sciences. I am director of the Institute for Communication
Technologies, and scientific director of three labs: webatelier.net,
devoted to eTourism, NewMinE Lab, devoted to ICT4D, and eLab, devoted to
eLearning. In 2013, I have become chair-holder of the UNESCO chair in
ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites,
recently established at USI Lugano. To move to more serious
things: I am married with Stefania, and I am a father of six kids:
Giorgio, Giuseppe, Teresa, Marco, Carlo, and Davide. Moreover, we live
in Ligornetto. I will play my role as a facilitator, who is
supposed to listen to our community’s needs, and to help it grow in a
harmonic way. To make sure that every IFITT member can feel he/she is
the real president!

Yours, in eTourism,Lorenzo

Please, find below the 18th issue of IFITT newsletter featuring: •Welcome from the president •Self presentation of the new Board members •Selected photos from ENTER2014 •ENTER2014 Awards •Featured IFITT Events •Presentation of Lugano Team

30.1.14

I will serve as President of the board of IFITT - International Federation for IT in Travel and Tourism for the term 2014-2016.See my presentation @ENTER2014 in Dublin:In the picture, with Iis Tussyadiah (IFITT Vice-president) and Barbara Neuhofer (IFITT treasurer).

Informazioni personali

Lorenzo Cantoni graduated in Philosophy and holds a PhD in Education and Linguistics. L. Cantoni is full professor at USI - Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano - Switzerland), Faculty of Communication Sciences, where he served as Dean of the Faculty in the academic years 2010-2014. He is currently director of the Institute for Communication Technologies and scientific director of the laboratories webatelier.net, NewMinE Lab: New Media in Education Lab, and eLab: eLearning Lab. L. Cantoni is chair-holder of the UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites, established at USI, and president of IFITT - International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism.His research interests are where communication, education and new media overlap, ranging from computer mediated communication to usability, from eLearning to eTourism, and from ICT4D to eGovernment. Lorenzo Cantoni is research professor at the Center for International Health Services Research & Policy, in the Washington State University and has collaborated/collaborates with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Politecnico di Milano, and University of the Holy Cross (Rome, Italy). In the years 2003-2008 L. Cantoni has been President of the I.Re.F. - Lombardy Region Institute for Education and Training of Public Administration, the largest Italian regional public administration school.